SJD “Southern Lights”

The video begins with a title card presenting a schedule of physics-related events that will take place during the video. For example, it starts with “Big Bang”, at 1.54 the fourth event is “Special Relativity”, there’s “Entropy” at 3:08, and it promises to end with “Infinite Expansion”.

The video is shot in black and white, with a vibe of a 1950s sci-fi film. The protagonist is a fellow in mime make up. He goes to work, which involves some sort of construction work in a space with messed-up gravity, and there’s a strange boss-like man who is playing tricks on him.

Back at home, the man goes to feed his cat, who likes to hide in boxes. He is alarmed to discover there are now two boxes, each with “Schrödinger’s Moving Co” printed on the side. He opens one box and is distressed to discover the cat is dead. You know what this means? Previously the two boxes each contained a cat that was either dead or alive. As we definitely know that one of the boxes contains a dead cat, the other unopened box now definitely contains a living cat. So yay, it gets fed.

I don’t know how accurate the physics are in this vid. I suspect there’s a lot of stuff used just because it looks quite good. And I have this idea that if I can understand the quantum physics references, they’re probably only accurate up to a Star Trek level. It’s a lot of semi-nerdy fun.

Best bit: the bossman rolls dice, surely a reference to Einstein’s quote “God doesn’t play dice”.